Firefighters

Huntington Beach Fire Engineer Sam Moser is recovering at home from injuries he sustained when a colleague accidentally hit him in the face with an ax as they were battling the March 11 Windy Ridge Fire. Moser's group had been working for more than three hours protecting homes in the Anaheim Hills area when a balcony at one of the houses caught fire and flames spread into the structural beams, Huntington Beach Fire Captain Tim Andre said Monday. A firefighter from another city was swinging an ax in an effort to knock down one of the beams, Andre said.

It has been 13 years since that horrible fire swept Laguna Beach and left many homes in ruin. Standing up to this hailstorm of flames were the best-trained firefighters of Orange County. Without those gallant individuals, many more homes and much property would have been lost. This week we're going to look at one of our firefighters and his rich history. Several years back, when I lived on California Street, I met this man at his home when he was holding a garage sale. I had seen him working out on his lawn many times but had not realized who he was. It was on Feb. 15, 1908, that our future firefighter was born in Ashland, Neb. His Nebraskan mother and New York-born father gave him the name of Bryce Wayne Pickering.

Huntington Beach firefighters extinguished a fire inside the Edinger Street overpass to the San Diego (405) Freeway that stopped traffic in the southbound lanes near the Beach Boulevard exit Sunday. The blaze started inside a crawl space in the overpass, most likely begun by transients who lived there, officials said. Reported at 6:19 a.m., the fire was not extinguished until a little before 9 p.m., lasting almost 15 hours. Firefighters had to cut a hole in the wall of the underpass to pull out the burning materials.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Rains trapped a man on the Los Angeles River and caused a mudslide in north Glendale Monday that forced a family to evacuate their Glenmore Boulevard home. A 40-year-old man had to be airlifted off of a small island in the middle of the river after getting stuck there during a downpour Monday morning, Glendale Fire Capt. Steven Parrish said. Paul Haynes, who had been living on the island, became trapped after rains caused water in the river to rise and move at a swift speed, Parrish said.

Measure D on Nov. 8 ballot would transfer some sales tax money from sheriff and D.A. to firefighters. Voters are being asked to extinguish a political battle between Orange County firefighters and sheriff's deputies during the Nov. 8 statewide special election. Four competing county ballot measures have been drafted to tackle how a half-cent sales tax should be spent on public safety. Officials with the Orange County Fire Authority said their firefighters deserve a share of the decade-old revenue source and are supporting Measure D, a ballot initiative to channel some police money to firefighters.

Still fuming over orders to stand in the background of a gubernatorial news conference while brush fires raged around the county, Burbank and Glendale fire departments came out in opposition Thursday to a ballot proposition they claim would stifle their political involvement. If approved by voters in the special Nov. 8 election, Proposition 75 would require unions representing public employees to get permission from members before spending dues for political purposes.

Firefighters from Laguna Beach spent nearly a week battling wildfires some 60 miles away from their coverage area. Although the fires raging in Los Angeles County weren't a threat to Laguna, local firefighters were called in to help. It's all part of a statewide mutual-aid agreement among California fire agencies. Whether it is fighting a brush fire in the Inland Empire or sifting through floodwaters for hurricane survivors in the South, local firefighters give help wherever they are needed.

Firefighters have a blaze that consumed 1,100 acres of brush over four days in the Verdugo Mountains, but not without some help from local businesses and nonprofits, who were called upon to help authorities as they worked around the clock fighting fire. "They're supplying food, sandwiches, anything we need all over the place," said Kirk Wishart, an engineer with Burbank Fire, adding that Wienerschnitzel even hauled a trailer to a firefighter camp to feed personnel.